Today, Edgar Wright has rolled out the trailer for his newest film, Last Night In Soho. The film was mentioned in my 2021 most interesting movie list despite the fact that almost nothing was known about it other than the presence of Anya Taylor-Joy and the location (uh, obviously). Well now we know more. A lot more.
WHOA. This instantly become my most desired movie for 2021. Lets go through a quick break down. First, we see some scenes to set the mood as the placid strains of “Downtown” start to play. We get our first look at Thomasin McKenzie, the clear star of the film (along with Anya). So far so good. Then the sheets come down. McKenzie re-emerges in 1965 NYC. Something is definitely wrong though… the classic strains of Downtown are mangled by the recognizable minor key of horror. McKenzie is clearly inhabiting the body of Anya Taylor-Joy… in her dreams. Notable probably villain Matt Smith appears, dancing with Taylor-Joy and proceeds to be full, creepy Matt Smith for the remainder of the trailer. We discover McKenzie is dreaming… or is she. Clearly there is a physical connection to her experience, which we see from a hickey that she seems rather proud of, as opposed to being disturbed (as I would be) if things I dreamt suddenly started having real life outcomes. It seems there is something a little off with McKenzie’s character too. She starts to inhabit the Anya Taylor-Joy character more and more in what seems to be her real life. Then the wheels REALLY come off. The horror music underlying the “Downtown” picks up steam. Out comes the scissors, the knife, and the burning record player.
Shit hits the fan. Someone is trying to murder Anya or is it Thomasin… or both? It all ends with a creepy little girl asking about ghosts (it’s always the creepy little girls) and a genuine jump scare. This is, perhaps, our very first full blown horror film from Edgar Wright (as opposed to Shawn of the Dead, which was very much not fully blown, while still being fully awesome). I have so many questions that I will have to wait for.
Still, this TRAILER is the best movie of the year so far. The music is incredible, and takes you on a wonderful little trip. As the images get darker and darker, the music joins us in the cosmic ballet Leonard Nimoy talked about on that Simpson’s monorail episode.
The visuals are so clearly Edgar Wright. The angles, the homages, the playfulness, and the creepiness are all just Wright. His cinematography is so unique to him, while always being cribbed from his influences. He is like a more accessible Tarantino in that way (by more accessible I mean avoiding using the N word every 5th word and avoiding an onslaught of ultraviolence). I found myself going full fanboi at the end when we get what feels like a very Shaun of the Dead sequence in which an arm protrudes through the ground and we get a ground-up angle on some sort of ghoulish creature pounding through the glass. So much is laid out in the quick cuts, I feel like I have seen the movie, yet I have absolutely no idea what is actually happening. It’s like watching a full length Christopher Nolan movie, but I now have an extra 2 hours and 28 minutes to research what is happening instead of trying to guess while rewinding every 10 minutes.